MORE VEGGIES, PLEASE

From: Dr. Jai Maharaj (usenet_at_mantra.com)
Date: 10/30/04 

Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 22:04:23 GMT

MORE VEGGIES, PLEASE

Forwarded message from fidyl@yahoo.com

[ Subject: More Veggies, Please
[ From: fidyl@yahoo.com
[ Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004

More Veggies, Please

http://www.msnbc.com/news/621405.asp#BODY
 
Is butter good or bad? What about chocolate, red wine,
nuts and beef?

The skinny on healthy eating: a diet rich in fruits,
greens and whole grains will keep you younger longer
 
By Anne Underwood
NEWSWEEK
  Fall & Winter 2001 -- Dr. Michael Roizen, dean of
SUNY upstate's College of Medicine in Syracuse, N.Y., has
seen plenty of lousy eaters. But the worst was a man of
37 who had eaten almost every meal for the previous nine
years at a Wendy's, Burger King or some other fast-food
restaurant. Shakes and greasy burgers were standard fare
for this man -- while his vegetable repertoire revolved
around iceberg lettuce, french fries and ketchup. It
doesn't take a medical-school dean to figure out that
this is no prescription for healthy aging, but Roizen was
able to tell the man precisely how much damage he was
doing.

ROIZEN IS THE DEVELOPER of a popular Web site that helps
people calculate their "real age" -- that is, the number
of years their bodies have actually aged, in contrast to
their calendar years. It is based on the premise, backed
up by thousands of studies, that such factors as general
health status, eating habits and exercise patterns
influence our risks of developing certain diseases or
ailments. This spring he took the concept one step
further and published a book called "The RealAge Diet,"
which shows how certain foods accelerate aging, while
others retard it. By Roizen's calculations, food choices
alone can tack as many as 13 years onto a person's de
facto age -- or strip off as many as 14. Sizing up the
fast-food junkie, Roizen says: "Combined with other bad
habits, his diet increased his 'real age' from 37 to 64."

Not many of us eat that poorly, but neither do we fully
weigh the consequences of our dietary choices. In part,
that's because there seem to be no reliable guidelines
anymore, just a jumble of conflicting reports. First we
were supposed to avoid butter; then it turned out that
stick margarine was even worse. Soy is supposed to be
great -- if you don't worry about last year's study
saying it atrophies the brain. Is caffeine good or bad
for us? And what about chocolate? It's had a bad rap for
years, but now scientists say it has high levels of
health-promoting antioxidants. No wonder confusion
reigns. But if you step back from the controversies over
individual foods, a clear picture emerges of the way we
should be eating. With remarkable consistency, studies
show that the healthiest regimens are based on fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, fish, nuts, low-fat dairy and
small amounts of lean meat. "What's crystal clear is that
people who exercise regularly and eat low-fat, high-
produce diets have multiple health benefits," says Dr.
Michael Thun, vice president of the American Cancer
Society. "These include reduced risks of heart attack and
stroke, diabetes, obesity and various cancers. It's that
simple."

Unfortunately, there are no magic pills or shortcuts
around eating well. Scientists increasingly agree that a
person can't just scarf down doughnuts and pizza and make
up the difference by taking vitamins. Fruits and
vegetables contain thousands of beneficial compounds that
have never been bottled. Whole grains provide fiber and
minerals that are stripped out of refined flour. Fish
provides high-quality protein, and nuts and olive oil
supply "good" fats that the body needs. Roizen pictures
these foods in the broad top of a "food hourglass." At
the narrow waist of his hourglass are those products we
need to restrict -- red meat, saturated fats,
hydrogenated vegetable oils and refined sugar. "Because
red meat has loads of saturated fat," he writes, "eating
it is like widening the neck of the hourglass, causing
the sands of time to run faster." If you do eat meat, he
advises, make it the side dish rather than the main
course, and consume no more than the serving size
recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture: three
ounces, or about the size of a deck of cards.

Where does that leave today's popular high-protein diets?
To the extent that a person's protein choices include
saturated fat, Roizen says these diets only contribute to
aging. He calculates that those who follow these diets
over the long haul can age their bodies by as much as 4.7
years. Most Americans get more than enough protein to
meet their nutritional needs anyway. As for avoiding
carbohydrates, it is true that refined flour and sugar --
the stuff of junk food and squishy white bread -- should
be reduced to a minimum. But the complex carbs in fruits,
vegetables and whole grains are essential, and other
compounds in these foods will help you beat a variety of
diseases as you age.

Here's a quick primer on disease-fighting foods:

HEART DISEASE

Dr. Christiaan Barnard, the famed South African heart
surgeon and author of the new book "50 Ways to a Healthy
Heart," says his goal is to "die 'young' as late as
possible." So far, at 78, he seems to be succeeding --
and his diet is a large part of the reason. It's rich in
fruits and vegetables, fresh herbs and spices, red wine,
olive oil, nuts and fish -- all proven heart protectors.
Fruits and vegetables have an astonishing range of heart-
friendly substances in them. These go well beyond
traditional vitamins, minerals and fiber. Chemicals
called flavonoids in purple grape juice improve the
elasticity of blood vessels and thin the blood. The
organosulfur compounds in onions appear to increase
levels of "good" cholesterol. So does olive oil.

Just about all fruits and vegetables can help --
including such staples as bananas and oranges, which are
rich in blood-pressure-lowering potassium. But less
common foods like pomegranates could be highly
beneficial, too. They increase blood levels of an enzyme
called paraoxonase that appears to break up arterial
plaque. According to lipids expert Michael Aviram of the
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, just
four ounces of pomegranate juice every day could help
reduce arterial lesions.

  Strategies For Healthy Aging
      
 -From Harvard Medical School

 o Soy: Great Food But Only Modest Medicine
 o The Healing Power of a Brisk Walk
 o Eating Healthfully, and Enjoying Every Bite
 o Learning to Be More Hopeful and Resilient
 o Hope or Hype? How to Read Health News
 
Of course, one of the classic ways of reducing heart-
disease risk is to eliminate saturated fat (which is
found in meat, full-fat dairy products and tropical oils)
and replace it with monounsaturates (in olive oil and
avocados) and polyunsaturated omega-3 oils (found in
fish, walnuts, flaxseed, canola oil and omega-3-enriched
eggs). Saturated fat raises levels of "bad" cholesterol.
Even worse are the so-called trans fats -- the
hydrogenated vegetable oils that both raise bad
cholesterol and lower the good.

If you still have a hankering for red meat, Barnard has a
suggestion -- eat wild game, or try grass-fed beef
instead of traditional grain-fed. This meat is leaner and
contains higher levels of essential omega-3 fatty acids.
The omega-3s appear to improve cardiovascular health, in
part by making arteries more flexible and in part by
reducing inflammation, which plays a role in heart
disease.

CANCER

A few years back, Dr. John D. Potter of the Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle headed up an
international panel of experts examining diet and cancer
prevention. In a review of 206 studies, the panel
consistently found that vegetables help to reduce cancer
risk. The powerhouse foods in these studies were carrots,
green vegetables, tomatoes and crucifers, such as
broccoli and cabbage. Carrots contain cancer-fighting
alpha carotene and beta carotene, plus a substance called
terpineol that deprives tumors of chemicals they need in
order to grow. Tomatoes contain lycopene, a potent
antioxidant that may reduce the risk of prostate and lung
cancers. Broccoli has a compound that helps the body
eliminate carcinogens. "If everyone ate at least five
servings of fruits and vegetables a day, that alone would
reduce cancer incidence by as much as 20 percent," says
Melanie Polk, director of nutrition education at the
American Institute for Cancer Research.

Other smart food choices can lower the risk still more.
For example, limit alcohol consumption to no more than
two drinks a day for men and one for women. Alcohol does
not cause mutations in cells, but when they arise,
alcohol can encourage abnormal cells to develop into
tumors. Eating less meat can also help fight cancers --
in part because saturated fats are thought to promote
certain cancers, and also because high-temperature
cooking generates carcinogens in meat called heterocyclic
amines. "Our closest relatives, chimpanzees, consume only
one fifteenth of an ounce of meat a week in the wild,"
points out Potter. "That's damned near vegetarian."

OSTEOPOROSIS

It's common knowledge that calcium builds bones and that
vitamin D helps the body absorb it. When we don't take in
enough calcium, the body robs bones of their stored-up
reserves of the mineral in order to supply the muscles,
heart and nerves. Foods rich in calcium include low-fat
dairy products, kale and enriched tofu. Calcium-fortified
orange juice is a particularly absorbable source.

In addition, new foods are emerging as possible bone
protectors. Bananas, long touted for their potassium,
contain magnesium, too. In recent studies, both minerals
have correlated with bone strength. Even more intriguing,
vitamin K now appears to play a role in maintaining bone
density. Found in dark leafy greens, such as spinach and
kale, this vitamin helps at least 12 proteins in the
blood, bones, arteries and brain carry out their
functions. Studies are showing that older women who eat
lots of vitamin K have denser bones and fewer hip
fractures.

MACULAR DEGENERATION

This disease is the leading cause of blindness in those
over 65. It's devastating and irreversible. But you can
help prevent it by packing your diet with a compound
called lutein, which is found in dark leafy greens, such
as kale, spinach and collard greens. Lutein works in two
ways. As an antioxidant, it absorbs the free radicals
that damage the rods and cones in the macula, the
supersensitive center of the retina. As a yellow pigment,
it also absorbs energetic blue light before it can injure
the rods and cones. "Lutein functions as internal
sunglasses," says Billy Hammond, professor of vision
science at the University of Georgia.

Lutein also helps reduce the incidence of cataracts,
which arise from a lifetime of free-radical damage to the
lens of the eye. The Nurses' Health Study from Harvard
found that those who dined regularly on two especially
lutein-rich foods -- spinach and kale -- had up to 40
percent fewer cataract surgeries. Those who eat the most
foods rich in vitamin C also reduce their risks,
according to a new study from Tufts.

DIABETES

The leading cause of adult-onset diabetes is excess
weight, plain and simple. Because diabetes and obesity so
often go hand in hand, Dr. David Heber, head of the UCLA
Center for Human Nutrition, refers to them as a single
phenomenon -- "diabesity." The obvious implication is
that one can reduce the risks of Type II diabetes by
simply shedding excess pounds. But overall dietary
choices are important, too, says Dr. Daniel Nadeau,
director of the diabetes clinic at Eastern Maine Medical
Center. "The wonderful thing is that fruits, vegetables
and whole grains are naturally low in calories and
facilitate weight loss," he says. "One cup of blueberries
has only 80 calories. A double cheeseburger with bacon
has 640."

And unlike the cheeseburger, the blueberries won't add to
your "real age" either. It's something to think about the
next time you belly up to a fast-food counter.

End of forwarded message from fidyl@yahoo.com

Jai Maharaj
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     "And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
 - Matthew 10:34-36.

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